Campaigner - Special Focus On Sudan
£31,104 Per Annum + Benefits - London Wc1
Closing date: 23rd May 2010

Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of volunteers and professionals standing up for human rights. Independent of any government, ideology, economic interest or religion, we have more than two million supporters in over 150 countries. Our purpose is to research, campaign and take action to effect change and protect individuals wherever rights, justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied. This position is within The International Secretariat – Amnesty International’s global centre for research, campaigning, legal, lobbying and membership work.

You will be required to conduct and co-ordinate campaigning activities, assessing where we will have an impact and how we can make a difference. You will have proven campaigning skills and knowledge of East Africa and in particular Sudan.

A proven campaigner who’s committed to human rights, you will combine a creative, yet pragmatic approach with excellent communication skills, particularly written and presentational. A team-oriented person with first-hand experience of the region with awareness and understanding of its cultures, you will also have impartial political judgement, excellent communication skills, strong strategic thought and an open and result-oriented approach to your work.
We offer an attractive worldwide relocation package plus other benefits.

For further information about this and our other current vacancies, and to apply online, please visit and quote reference AFR/EAFT/C01. CVs will not be accepted.

The closing date for applications is 23rd May 2010.

LIBERATE FROM INJUSTICE
JOIN THE FIGHT
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

At 11 p.m. on 2 January 2008, back from Nairobi, Kenya, an exhausted Ory Okolloh — a Johannesburg-based Kenyan lawyer in her thirties — posted the following message on her blog: “For the reconciliation process to occur at the local level the truth of what happened will first have to come out.

World Economic Forum on Africa - The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that nearly 1,000 participants from 85 countries will take part in the 20th World Economic Forum on Africa in Tanzania's commercial capital city of Dar es Salaam 5-7 May 2010. President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete will host the meeting, which this year explores the theme "Rethinking Africa's Growth Strategy.

The East African Community (EAC) Thursday partnered with the One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a US-based non-profit organisation whose mission is to help provide every child in the world access to a modern education. According to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the EAC and OLPC, the two organisations agreed to work together to leverage the advantages of the laptops in transforming primary school education and to promote strategies for better access to laptops and connectivity -- especially for the region's underprivileged children.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is “the rape capital of the world”, a senior UN official has said. Margot Wallstrom, the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo.

IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to promote South-South cooperation and exchange.

Vital Kamarhe

Vital Kamarhe

On April 21, Nnimmo Bassey of Nigeria's Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth International, spoke at the inauguration ceremony of the World People’s Climate Conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was featured on Democracy Now discussing the Cochabamba-Copenhagen divide outside what he dubbed “The Most Important Event in the Struggle Against Climate Change."

In 2008, Zimbabweans welcomed the signing of the Global Political Agreement between the three political parties in Zimbabwe namely MDC (T), MDC (M) and ZANU PF. This agreement has led to considerable peace and stability in Zimbabwe. While the agreement was a positive development, its implementation has been fraught with hiccups and a number of stumbling blocks which has resulted in tensions between the parties to the agreement. This led to the recalling of the SADC Mediator President Jacob Zuma to iron out outstanding issues between the principals to the agreement.

It was a departure they never had time to prepare for. Seeking to escape death — sometimes amidst fighting between the Senegalese army and rebels in the southern region of Casamance — thousands fled their homes and abandoned livestock and property. Over the past two decades many have resettled in successive waves in Ziguinchor, a major city in Casamance.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that more than 10 million people in developing countries are at risk of new cases of cancer by 2020. The UN nuclear watchdog, in a report released at the UN headquarters in New York, also raised concern over the growing cancer epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

Skeletal academic activity enveloped Tanzania's public universities Thursday as lecturers joined a strike to press for better retirement benefits from the government. While the government remained silent about the strike, a meeting of seven public higher learning institutions held here has agreed to go ahead with the strike.

Nigerians have praised acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove the much criticised election chief Maurice Iwu. Opposition Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora told the BBC that his removal was “the beginning of electoral reform”.

Uganda's Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya and several other ministers should be prosecuted for embezzling government money, a leaked MPs' report says. The allegations against them centre on contracts awarded for the Commonwealth summit held in Uganda in 2007. The 174-page draft report was given to Uganda's two main newspapers ahead of the president's meeting with parliament's public accounts committee.

African civil society has strongly criticised the World Bank’s new report on 'Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihood and Resources'. The World Bank’s report acknowledges and seeks to address the growing problem of 'land grabbing' by foreign investors in Africa. But civil society groups have condemned the report as an attempt to legitimise the land grabbing.

The event is called “Un-Freedom Day”. We call it “Un-freedom Day” because we feel like we are still oppressed by poverty, underdevelopment and injustices directed to us as marginalized communities living in the rural and farming areas. We say that apartheid used racism to exclude the majority of the South Africans, especially indigenous South Africans from accessing economic resources and from participating in the politics of the country. Today we witness class, gender, race and geographical location to exclude the majority of South Africans from participating fully in our democracy. Those of us who live in the rural areas do not have access to our own ancestors’ land, proper education, water and health facilities.

Slowly by slowly and amidst controversy the loop against corruption in Tanzania’s elections is becoming tighter as the new Elections Expenses Act 2009 becomes operational. The Act which was controversially tabled in December 2009 and approved in February 2010 seeks to control the use of funds and curb illegal practices in the nomination process, election campaigns and elections processes.

In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, IMF and Africa agree on public investment borrowing modalities, China shifts its Africa investment strategy, Tata Africa to start assembly plant in Nigeria, and Vodacom’s DRC investment turns sour.

Participants at the recent 6th Partnership Platform Meeting of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in Johannesburg, South Africa, have agreed that Africa needs speedy and effective measures to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Zimbabwe is expected to pass legislation that could help it take better advantage of information technology, despite the economic crisis that has gripped the country. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Bill, which would pave the way for implementing a strategic ICT plan launched in February, is currently awaiting cabinet approval before it goes to parliament for further scrutiny.